There has been a wave of outrage following Donald Trump’s attempt to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. The Columbia University graduate, who played a prominent role in last year’s encampment protests, was detained by plainclothes officers at his accommodation on campus. He has permanent residency and is married to a US citizen.
Tens of thousands of students protested in New York’s Washington Square, with thousands more rallying at the University of California in Berkeley, Stanford University, University of California in Los Angeles, Chicago and Oregon University. Over 150 mainly Jewish protesters stormed Trump Tower, wearing t-shirts with the words “Jews say stop arming Israel” and chanting “Bring Mahmoud home now”.
After being picked up in New York, Khalil was sent to a detention centre in Louisiana. Khalil was among protesters in March who staged a sit-in at a university library protesting the expulsion of three students for pro-Palestine activism. He has not been charged with any crime.
His arrest followed an online campaign by pro-Israel activists including Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School who was temporarily barred from entering campus last year after the university said he repeatedly harassed and intimated other employees.
His and other pro-Israel accounts tweeted at Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying Khalil was “known to have been on a foreign visa last year” and urging his deportation.
Khalil now faces a months-long court battle as lawyers argue that the Secretary of State’s decision to cancel his permanent residency is in violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech. Trump has threatened that his arrest is the first of “many to come”.
